Dreams 3
A Winds of Change story
by: Lance Holloway
The next morning I woke up as usual. I didn't have an early class
today. As a matter of fact, I didn't have anything to do until, 12:30.
And that was office hours. So, it was about 10:00 am when I got up. I
was up all night reading and sending e-mail.
I was amazed at how comfortable I was sleeping on my stomach. I
usually roll all over the bed, but I guess my new stegosaurian body knew
better. Those plates on my back would either rip my sheets or hurt me if
I rolled over on them. I got out of bed and gathered my bathroom
supplies. I walked down the hall to the bathroom and took a shower. I
was still shocked that I was not human, but a stegosaurus morph. But, I
felt like it was my normal body.
The shower was pretty tough. I had to get used to being about
seven feet tall instead of 5'7". I stood well above the shower head.
And then I had a hard time washing my back. Not only did the two rows of
plates get in the way, but my back was so arched that I couldn't reach
all of it easily. I scrubbed the best I could. I made a mental note to
buy a bath brush. I got out of the shower, dried off, and finished the
rest of my bathroom routine.
I used the same sheet I had the day before for clothes. I needed
to get some new ones. None of my old clothes fit me anymore. So, I
decided to go to the store some time soon. Hopefully I'll be able to
find something I can wear.
Breakfast was interesting. I ate at the school cafeteria. They
had most of the staff working. There was a wide variety of students
eating. A table of carnivores were seeing if they could still eat
hashbrowns, while some herbivores were tasting of the sausage. "I wonder
if I could still eat sausage," I thought. The day before I was too
caught up in what was happening, that I didn't eat much. At that was the
grass I ate in my "norm" form. I felt all the other students watching
me. I guess because I was a dinosaur. I usually blend into a crowd
easily. But, being a stegosaurus among a campus of non-extinct animals,
I kind of stick out.
I got my breakfast food. It was mostly hashbrowns and eggs. I
got some sausage to see if I could still eat it. I took my tray and
looked for a table. I usually eat breakfast with some of my friends, but
I didn't know what they were. So, I sat at a table by myself. I tried
the sausage first. It didn't taste like it used to. But, it still
tasted good. The eggs tasted the same as they always have. I kind of
wished that the cafeteria eggs would taste better. The hashbrowns were
the best. I never had hashbrowns that had that much flavor. They were
fine before, but now they were great.
I finished my breakfast and walked to the office. All the
computer science graduate students were there. There was a large range
of the degree of change. But, nobody was a dinosaur. I hadn't seen
another dinosaur at all. "Am I the only one?" I asked myself.
Surprisingly, the day went as normal. Except for the occasional
question about the change. Everybody seemed to be taking it well. More
students had shown up. I didn't have a class to teach, so I didn't
expect to do too much. The hardest part for me was sitting in my chair.
I couldn't lean back, and my tail wasn't too comfortable in the position
it was in.
About 2:00, a horse woman stopped my the office. She had a child
with her. He was hiding behind his mother's legs. The boy was still
human. That surprised me. I heard on the news that children that hadn't
gone through puberty didn't change. But, seeing someone that was still
human was shocking.. I wondered if they would change when they got
older.
"Excuse me. But, is Lance here?" the horse asked.
"I'm Lance."
"Lance, I'm Carla Grey," she said.
"Carla? And this must be your son I heard you talk about."
The boy peered around Carla's legs and looked at me. His eyes lit
up, and he ran over to me. He stood by my chair staring at me.
"I'm sorry, Lance. But, Jimmy likes dinosaurs," Carla said taking
Jimmy's hand. "Jimmy, it's not nice to stare."
"Mommy, it's a stego," Jimmy replied pointing at me.
"Yes, and he is my teacher." She looked at me. "I'm sorry I
brought him. I didn't know...."
"Oh, don't worry. I am getting use to being stared at," I said.
I bent down to talk to Jimmy. "Jimmy, do you want to sit in my lab?"
Jimmy looked up at his mother excitedly. Carla nodded, and he
hopped up on my lap. He sat there looking up at my head silently.
"Lance, I was wondering what we did in class yesterday. Jimmy's
school was closed, so I had to stay home," Carla explained.
"You didn't miss anything. No one was here," I said. I looked
down and saw Jimmy still staring at me with awe. "We will just make that
lab up next week."
Jimmy started to move. He positioned himself so he could see my
back. He reached out and felt of one of my plates.
"Jimmy no!" Carla yelled.
Jimmy jerked his hand back and sat innocently in my lap. "I just
wanted to feel...."
"Jimmy, you didn't ask," Carla said.
"It's ok," I said.
"We better be going. I need to take Jimmy to the store. We were
planning on buying him some new clothes. It looks like I need some new
ones, too," Carla said picking Jimmy up from my lap.
"He wasn't bothering me," I said.
"I'll see you next week," she said carrying the boy out the door.
"Bye, Mr. Stego," Jimmy called back. Then I heard him say to his
mother, "I want to be a dinosaur when I grow up."
Carla said something back, but they were too far down the hall for
me to understand. I tried to get as comfortable as I could in my chair
and started grading people's programs from last week. I wondered how
many of them would return to pick them up.
Eventually it was time for me to go home. I left the office and
headed for the dorm. When I got there, I had a package. It was from my
parents. They usually send me the mail that arrives at home. This must
have been sent before the Change. "My Parents!," I suddenly realized. I
hadn't called my parents. I hurried to my room, put my backpack on the
floor, and picked up the phone. It didn't occur to me that my parents
had changed. I knew the whole world did, but I didn't think my parents
did. I all came as a shock when I realized it wasn't a dream.
"Hello?" asked my mom on the other end.
"Mom? It's me, Lance," I said.
"Lance, are you ok? We were worried. The phones were busy all
day yesterday."
"I'm fine. I'm a stegosaurus, but I'm fine."
"A stegosaurus? That's unique."
"How are you all?" I asked.
"We are fine. Your dad is a deer now. I don't think he will be
hunting anytime soon. Heather is a turtle. She is accepting it rather
well. She claims she is more like that Ninja Turtle she used to like."
"Michaelangelo?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's him. She's trying to pick up nunchakus."
I laughed at that. Heather had liked Michaelangelo ever since the
Ninja Turtles came out.
"I... Well I can say that I don't hate dogs anymore," Mom said.
"You're a dog?"
"A husky to be exact."
"It's nice to know you are ok. Some people seem to have lost it,"
I said.
"I know what you mean. Everything seems to be find here. But, in
the city, mobs have formed and looted many of the stores."
We talked for about thirty minutes. After I hung up the phone,
David came over. Even with the head of a donkey, I could tell something
was bothering him. "What's wrong?" I asked.
He sighed. It sounded more like a "hee-haw", but I knew it was
meant to be a sigh. "I don't understand. Why?" he looked at his
hoof-like hands and clenched them. "Why?"
"You know I don't know," I replied. I was more puzzled why I
became an extinct animal. "Nobody really knows."
"I don't know if I can get used to this. I mean I'm a donkey.
I'm an animal. Everybody is an animal!"
"We are not animals," I said. I remembered what it was like to
actually think like a stegosaurus. Even if it was only for a few
minutes. "We are people. No matter what we look like now."
"That sounds so fake," David said.
"Hey. Why don't we do something we used to do?"
"Like what?"
I almost leaned back in my chair to think. I realized what I was
about to do and jerked forward. I rested my elbow on my knee with my
chin in my hand instead. "Why don't we go hiking tomorrow? I don't have
anything to do." I knew David loved to go hiking. Meghan did, too.
But, I don't know how well she can now that she is part walrus. However,
I think she is taking to her new form better than David.
His long ears perked up. "That sounds good. I hope Meghan will
want to go."
---------------------
The next day we went hiking. I didn't get a chance to go to the
store. So, I found an old sheet and ripped it to make some shorts. I
don't think I'll get used to going around naked like other people are.
Meghan was willing to go hiking. She also talked Jenny into
going, too. Jenny had been wanting to get away from her school work for
a long time. She was thrilled to be going on a hike. And now that she
is a squirrel, she was even more eager.
The four of us decided to go on a short trail. None of us new the
limits on our new bodies yet, so we didn't want to risk anything. The
trail we picked ended at a lake. That was our driving force. We set out
to reach the lake and not turn back until we did. Meghan was the one
pushing us. She wanted to get in the water. A swim didn't sound too bad
to me either. Although I'm not sure how well a stegosaurus can swim.
To get to the lake, we had to cross over a mountain and then go
down the other side. It was not a huge mountain, but it is much bigger
than a hill. All of us handled it well. Jenny was the one to reach the
top first. David was next. He seemed to be enjoying the hike. I just
hoped it snaps him out of his depression. I arrived at the top followed
by Meghan.
The view was spectacular. We could see the lake sparkling in the
distance. I felt like I was on top of the world. Well, it might have to
do with the fact that I was not the tallest of the group instead of being
the shortest and I was at the top of the tallest mountain in this area.
But, I really felt like a part of nature. I thought I had accepted my
new form before, but I didn't realize that I missed being human. The
feeling I had pushed all the regrets away. I loved being a stegosaurus.
The plates on my back soaked up the sunlight while a cool breeze blew
across them. It was an new sensation. It felt wonderful. I had no
intention to change into a full stegosaurus. I didn't want to lose my
human thoughts. But, I didn't want to change back into my old human body
again. This is me now.
"Lance. LANCE!" David yelled. I snapped out of my gaze at the
horizon and turned to look at the others. "Lance, we are going down to
the lake now."
Jenny had already started down the mountain. Meghan was turning
to go. David was standing there watching me.
"I just love the view," I said. I started walking down toward the
lake. I couldn't wait to get there. It looked so inviting from the top.
When we finally reached it, Meghan ran and jumped in. The rest of us
were a little more reluctant. I was curious about my swimming ability
now, so I was cautiously waded out into the water. Jenny and David
stayed back. I could understand. They had all that fur.
I had gotten out far enough where I couldn't touch bottom. The
water was refreshing, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to. I
guess it was all the added weight. Or it might just be some instincts.
I'm not sure. But, I wasn't very good at swimming. I could doggie
paddle. That was about it. My saurian body couldn't handle anything
else. So, I got back to where I could stand. Meghan sure was enjoying
herself. She would swim out into the lake, and then splash me when she
returned to where I was wading.
I got out of the water and laid out to bask in the sun. Meghan
continued swimming. David and Jenny were sitting near the edge watching
Meghan. She tried to splash them, but they were just out of reach.
After Meghan got her fill of swimming, we headed back to where we
parked the car. We were starting to get hungry, and we didn't bring a
lot with us. Most of the food we brought was in the car. We didn't know
Meghan was going to swim for so long. We reached the car and drove to a
nice picnic spot. We went in David's car, because I couldn't sit in
mine. I need to get that fixed some how. David had a Jeep Cherokee, so
I laid in the back. I couldn't sit down in any of the seats.
We ate and drove back to campus. David dropped Meghan and Jenny
off at their dorms, and then he parked near ours. "Today was the best
day of my life," David said as we were getting out of the car. "Thanks
for suggesting to go on a hike. It's just what I needed."
"I was a great hike, wasn't it?"
"I think I'm going to like this body once I get completely used
to it."
"I know how you feel," I said. I guess I wasn't the only one who
felt like a part of nature. "It's glad to have to old David back."
"No, it's the new and improved David," he said laughing. It
sounded just like a bray to me.